I went to Haiti with the Mission of Hope team
from Lawton, OK in November of 2007. We were there for the
Thanksgiving Holiday week. There were sixteen people on the team
with seven of them in their teens. The leader was Kim Shahan. We
landed in Port au Prince in the late afternoon and were met by the
Mission of Hope bus, a recycled yellow school bus. Driven north
through the city on a very congested two lane road…the main road in
the region.

When we arrived at the compound an armed guard
opened the gate, let us in and closed it. He then opened the second
gate and let us into the compound. We drove past the orphanage,
school church and clinic to the dorm facilities. They were also
walled with an armed guard sitting in a tower. We had generator
power from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. It was great to have the fans to keep
off the mosquitoes.

Sunday we went to church on the compound and
after the singing, the kids left for Sunday school. We went and I
did a string program for them and taught them some things. The team
was just beginning to learn some of the figures so they could help
the kids. Soon they were very proficient.

After church we brought some of the kids from
an outlying village up to the dorm for lunch with us and then to
play on the playground that had been built the year before. What a
pleasant time for the kids; food, loving attention and play. It
can’t be beat.

That evening we went down to the Hope House
orphanage where 40 or so kids were being reacquainted with some of
the team members who had been there before. Popcorn and a video in
Creole; I had trouble keeping my eyes open.

The first three days I worked in the mornings
with the kids at the school on the compound. There were 1,200
students and we worked with each grade level from first grade up. I
had young men that had graduated from the orphanage translating for
me. They did a great job.

Each afternoon we went to another school or
orphanage to do string programs. Each was so different; but similar
in the fact that it was crowded, dim, and hot. Most of the schools
had a piece of plywood painted green for a chalkboard…or maybe just
a part of the wall. It’s not very readable but without any
textbooks, very necessary.

One day we walked up to the Voodoo Tree. Waded
the river three times and followed a very muddy and slippery trail
that young boys were leading horses loaded with sugar cane along.
The tree was an enormous affair of roots, branches and gnarled
trunks. We did strings with the people there and I put a string
crucifix on the tree. It was great to be telling the Gospel Story to
the people gathered at that place.

Another day we went to Grace House in Cabaret.
It is a big room that just got cement for the floor. It is built for
the homeless people next to the dump. They were so happy to have
anyone pay attention to them. Some of them knew string figures, so
we had a bond to start with. We also gave out Beanie Babies to kids
and adults alike. I wonder what they look like after a couple of
days.

The students at Titanyen School were very
receptive to the string program and by this time the team members
were very eager to teach what they knew. Sometimes they would take a
child or adult off to teach them something different than what I was
teaching. Oh well, now I have many disciples.

The Good Samaritan Orphanage was in a building
instead of the tent they were in last year. With the help of
organizations such as Mission of Hope, these children are getting a
chance at life. We brought the backpacks, paper and pencils. Oh,
what we take for granted!

Simonette School was started two years ago by a
Haitian man who saw a need in his village. He taught the kids under
a tree. Last year he was able to get a blue tarp for a school. This
year he built a building out of pallets. They have dirt floors but
now there are four rooms for the kids. When the average worker gets
$2.50 a day, they don’t have much with which to work.

We were searching for a girl that one of the
families had befriended last year. We found her with her eight
siblings and her mother living in a very unpleasant situation. They
had lost everything when the floods from the hurricane came through
two weeks earlier. Eighty people in that area were killed at that
time.

MOH was able to get her family situated in a 12
by 12 home, register her in a school and get her a uniform. They
also were able to alert the authorities of the need and Convoy of
Hope, a humanitarian feeding program, is going to saturate the area
with meals. All of this happened because one family wanted to help
one little girl.

The team and I worked with 2,500 people…at
least we gave out that many strings. The strings were a perfect
vehicle for communicating love with the people. No language skills
necessary. There was also a team from Kansas City, MO there. They
joined us in working with the people and are now also proficient in
string. In fact, they want to start some kind of work with them in
their area.